Downloaded from http://whydtinogo.blogspot.com on 5
September 2011
The two African countries
receiving press these days are Libya and Somalia. The standoff between Muammar
Gadhafi and his opposition that began in Benghazi and spread westward in Libya receives
a good amount of attention from the press and Western policy makers. Somalia, too,
has its share of political turmoil as a central authority has been absent for
the past twenty years and the only groups able to make headway in the fighting
are pan-Islamist fundamentalists like Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (often shortened
to Al Shabaab). Somalia also experienced a drought this
year. This, in combination with its on-going civil strife, is exacerbating
conditions of famine, Diaspora, and the spread of disease.
Problems such as these, however,
do not remain separate from each other or uniform over space. Libya is
certainly in a state of disrepair but so are its neighbours: Algeria, Mali,
Niger and Chad. Algeria is silently supporting Gadhafi and suppressing any
forms of dissidence as the Bouteflika administration is fearful that the ‘Arab
Spring’ will reach its territory. Mali, Niger and Chad are witnessing large
crowds of people coming from Libya who left because of the turmoil or because their
previous relationship with the Gadhafi regime will foster acts of revenge if
the rebels should succeed in ousting Gadhafi. These groups place strains on the
limited infrastructure, food resources, and health services that are in place.
Chad is right now trying to contain cholera and measles outbreaks in addition
to their grain reserves quickly depleting.
The events in Somalia also
influence the stability of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Somali
groups live in the first three of these countries. While the drought was most
severe in the southern central region of Somalia, kinship ties allow large
movements of people around East Africa where water resources were sufficient
for local populations before, but now are strained through the arrival of more
consumers. Such depletion leads to the use of contaminated water and poor
sanitation. Kenya and Ethiopia are fighting outbreaks of cholera and malaria at
the moment. Tanzania is an interesting
case as certain regions in its territory were affected by poor rains this year
but the country still produced enough food for its population. The concern,
however, is in Tanzanian grain being smuggled north to Kenya and Somalia where
returns will be higher. Regional ties exist, they are strong, and a crisis in
one country is influential on many neighbouring countries.
This said, it should be noted there are
countries, and regions, experiencing the same turmoil as Libya and Somalia at
the moment that receive little or no attention from the press and Western
policy makers. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe are obvious
examples that experience crises affecting the food security, health, and human
rights of populations in these countries as well as those in Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi in the case of the DRC and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique when talking
of Zimbabwe. People, commodities and ideas move easily over all parts of
Africa. So too, do crises and the escalation of problems when focus is placed
on only one or two states.
Photo by James
Natchwey, 2011
